++ Hi Neil! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

You’re welcome Roque.

It amuses me that there is now so much interest in Elephant Noise and similar vintage acts. If only we’d had this sort of support at the time !

I am still involved in music. I teach guitar with a focus on song writing to kids and work with Dave Tough, a fellow writer and producer based in Nashville to create songs for TV and movie placement. London based record companies always liked my writing but not my singing (!) so now to have my material performed and recorded by talented professional musicians is exactly where I want to be. I am not rich yet but still waiting for one of our Christmas songs to make a breakthrough. In Elephant Noise days I thought I was a prophet but my writing is now more crafted and hopefully has wider commercial appeal.

You can hear the songs on my website www.neilbarber.co.uk

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

I was the geeky kid in the playground with the violin case and still play violin a bit on my recordings. I was leader of the school orchestra and played classical music for many years.

The first song I listened to on repeat was Bohemian Rhapsody. I learned the guitar as an older teenager and joined the folk club at University. Folk music has a likeable flavour to it but I eventually felt it said little to me about my own life. I learned a lot about song writing from Dylan and Cohen etc. but acts like Bowie, Roxy Music and The Velvet Underground began to show me that rock music could be art.

++ Had you been in other bands before Elephant Noise? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?

++ What about the other members?

I am still best pals with Crum, our first drummer and Stuart the guitarist.

Crum also writes music for media and has a recording studio.

http://www.steamstudios.co.uk/p/gallery_19.html

Stuart is an academic writer, social work leader and still plays guitar a lot, notably in a very experimental band called Orange Claw Hammer.

https://www.orangeclawhammer.net/

++ Where were you from originally?

I am from Dumfries in the Scottish borders: the original small town boy!

I came to Edinburgh University to study philosophy and that’s when life began for me, although I now have more fondness for the old toon when we visit friends there.

++ How was Edinburgh at the time of Elephant Noise? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

I had just returned to Edinburgh after a year living in The States.

Music venues came and went as I recall. The problem with that time was that there was a recession on. Bands were booked because they pulled a crowd. Maybe that was a measure of their quality…maybe not. The London based record industry was certainly cagey about investing in something nascent and fresh when it was less risky to sign bands that sounded like existing success stories.

++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Neil (bass player) and I met after we realised we both liked Roxy Music and wanted to avoid the blues. ( I prefer my sevenths major)

He had come up to Edinburgh from Guernsey in The Channel Isles to find a band. He obviously saw something in my writing as he had to teach me a lot about the mechanics of being in a band. He remembered Crum(drummer) from a previous jam/audition and Crum had been at school with Stuart (lead guitar) whom we spotted in the pub and immediately recruited.

Crum left the band after a few years. We were increasingly aiming at mainstream pop success and he wanted something a bit heavier and more indie.

We had two subsequent drummers, several keyboard players and eventually backing vocalists as we became better known.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

We were unusually efficient in producing material as I recall, as we all had different specialised areas and huge respect for each other’s unique contributions.

I would write a verse and a chorus on my own at home and bring it in to practice. Bass and drummer would work out a groove and Stuart would add his parts. We’d gig songs and if they weren’t making the grade we’d drop them. Neil (bass) was in charge of production of our recorded material. We seldom disagreed musically and communicated well…maybe the secret of the longevity of our original line-up.

++ Back in the day you only released the Elephant Noise EP in 1991. It came out on RUB Records. Was it your own label? What does RUB mean?

Yes it was our own label. RUB was an acronym for Rich Urban Biker: a teasing description of my university friend who, as one of the many self-employed and well-off computer programmers of the early nineties, discovered that a donation to the arts (us) would allow him to avoid a tax threshold !

Also I thought it sounded a bit rude (as in Stiff Records)

++ Before this release, had the band recorded songs? Perhaps released demo tapes? And speaking of demo tapes, how many did you put out? Were all of your songs released later on “Remember the Big Time” the retrospective compilation Firestation Records released?

“Remember the Big Time” has most of our recordings. I kept the originals in the attic for decades in the hope that such a revival would take place !

++ Tell me about the artwork on the EP sleeve. Where was it taken?

It is a detail of an original painting by Carolyn Burchell, a friend and a mutual friend of Raymond Albeson who took all the great photos we still have. www.axisweb.org/p/carolynburchell

++ The four song on the EP were recorded at Pier House Studios. How did you like working there? Was it your first time at a professional studio?

We had previously made two 3-song demos there. (all on the Remember the Big Time compilation) It was our first studio. Pete Haigh the producer/engineer I think rather enjoyed working with us as we were a bit less grunty than some of his other clients. He referred to us as “a bunch of Guardian readers” and eccentrically gave us rows for rustling crisps wrappers in the studio

++ Many years later Firestation Records released the fantastic compilation “Remember the Big Time”  on CD. Previously they had included you in the compilation album “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 7”. How did the connection with the German label happen?

Not sure. There seems to be a bit of a thing for 80s/90s Britpop in Europe just now…I guess Uve just found some stuff on line.

++ By listening to all of these great songs of yours one does wonder, how come there were no more releases by the band? Was anything planned? And was there interest from any labels to put your music out at any point?

As I said before we did have interest from labels. I had a bit of a flair for hyperbole and managed to knock on a few doors: sometimes quite literally. We did a few gigs with Jools Holland and his Big Band because of the university contacts I had developed, so it was an easy trick to promote that as “touring with Jools Holland” which got us some attention. We did travel down to London to showcase but when you’ve been sleeping on your pal’s floor and are playing to an empty room it’s seldom a convincing performance.

We met a few A & R guys whom we got on with very well, but while they liked the writing and understood what we were trying to do, they couldn’t quite see my face on magazine covers.

Happily now I am a semi-successful bedroom writer which was always my forte.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “New Town Tom”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Eeek…Tom was our second drummer on whom the character in the song was very loosely based.  I know you have interviewed him too and I was relieved to see that after a few raised eyebrows he is comfortable with the song intended as an affectionate portrait. In my youthful arrogance I felt that all autobiographical material was fair game for songs: I hate to think how many people I offended as I threw up my hands declaring, “I can’t help it…it’s art!” The rest of us were all university graduates with time on our hands and degrees to fall back on and were, rightly or wrongly, invested completely in the band ambition. We rehearsed every day. Tom worked very hard to fit in with our schedule but ultimately and understandably was unable to give up his job and risk his security for what was always going to be a shot in the dark. The lyric of the song speaks for itself. “Bring what you hope to find”, is quite a nice line but maybe my vision for someone else’s spiritual emancipation betrays a fair bit of naivety and middleclass privilege. I was young!

++ If you were to choose your favorite Elephant Noises song, which one would that be and why?

I can’t choose sorry. Listening to the songs again now 35 years later, I recognise different song writing techniques for which I now, as a teacher, have labels and insights. There were many songs with precautious chord changes: Indian Summer, Hearsay, and others with unrepentant “art-rock “ambition.  “Lost to the world” wanted to be avant-garde rhythmically and melodically and “She’s an Aeroplane” doesn’t try to hide its Roxy Music aspirations with its landscape of gratuitous chord and tempo changes. I was also fascinated by the idea of the perfect pop song: “This Song is our Friend” is a Marmite track being both many people’s favourite and least favourite track. We always finished gigs with “In my Room”…a floaty Velvet Underground-esque ballad showcasing Stuart’s guitar feedback and our theatrical stage performances.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share? And were there any bad ones?

For a while we gigged as much as possible. With travel and PA hire involved we seldom made any financial profit but the desperate hope that the head of the record company would be in the back row kept us plugging away. He never was. It did make us a very capable live act but there was limited value in playing gigs to the bar staff and our partners! Gigs were hard work: setting off to another town for a sound check at 5pm; eating fish suppers on the High St; performing at 10pm; dismantling gear and driving home to unload gear upstairs into the flat. Bed by 4am. Happily we were all in our 20s.  Live highlights for me were playing at a festival in Princes St. gardens, and the Jools Holland support gigs. It’s amazing how a crowd’s expectation can raise a gig into something quite different.

We did a showcase with Swede in London just before they were signed. I maintain there was a mix up in the office.

We did a gig once where I and other singers were getting electric shocks from the mic ! No fun.

Stuart’s determination to put a postmodern stamp on all guitar playing styles led to him falling over and pulling his lead out while “duck-walking” at and early gig.

I was of course never so undignified (ahem)

++ When and why did Elephant Noise stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards? What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards? Has there been any Elephant Noise reunions?

As I said I am still friends with Crum and Stuart. Stuart plays a lot and I am grateful for the guitar parts he has added to some recent recordings of the self-performed songs on my website www.neilbarber.co.uk

Elephant Noise had just got to the end of the road. There was no animosity, just a shared realisation that we had knocked on all the doors. I had just turned 30. Might our fate have been different had there been more money and risk taking in the industry at the time ? Maybe but I have no regrets. There is nothing like being in a band with someone to bond you for life: how can you forget those late night trips home sitting on the bass amp in the back of the van?

Reverting to some of my folkie roots, I play guitar in a ceilidh band. It’s not really my favourite type of music but it’s fun and weddings pay well.

I also do wee gigs playing bass with some of the kids bands I teach and manage.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Oh yes. As band manager and general loud-mouth I was absolutely not of the mumbled opinion that “we let the music speak for itself!”

I was interviewed frequently on local and national radio and once enjoyed being on a “juke-box jury” show with Jo Brand! (I bet she’s forgotten me though)

Nowadays with internet self-promotion, things are quite different but at the time you played a delicate game of “sorry we’re not sending out demos just now as we’re talking with (competitor) X” When record companies “passed” on you, that was it forever, so you kept things hidden till the time was right. I got a call from EMI after our first gig asking for a demo. In my arrogance I sent them a tape we’d made off the deck which was of course not great. I never heard from them again.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention? What about fanzines?

Oh yes we were a journalist’s dream ‘cos we said stuff. You couldn’t shut me up!

Some of my favourite reviews were “The band betrays a spirit of tarnished naivety and world weariness” (Scotsman) and even the Worhol–esque “The songs are everything they appear and less.” (The List)

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

The Jools Holland gigs and the vinyl release.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Gardening, swimming.

I also represent the National Secular Society in Scotland and campaign in the press and media against religious privilege through our local group The Edinburgh Secular Society.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for your interest in Elephant Noise Roque….always a nostalgia trip J

Thanks also for sharing my website in the event that any of your readers are interested in my current work as a songwriter, teacher and voice-over artist.

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Listen
Elephant Noise – New Town Tom